Jayden Daniels was on a podcast discussing where he wants to improve in 2025... Is this possible?
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00:00All right, I want to talk Jaden Daniels for a moment.
00:02And coming up closer to 5 o'clock, we will paint the show red
00:05and we'll get you ready for Caps hockey leading up to game one
00:08as you traverse into the city tonight and you commute to the game.
00:11But this interview he did with John Gruden was just really impressive, I thought.
00:16A lot of the things he said went into more detail than he typically does.
00:19So I want to go through a couple of these things that he pointed out.
00:22But something that he mentioned was this idea of trying to get better this year
00:26and to try to find some of his own tendencies
00:29so that he can do away with them.
00:31So that as defensive coordinators are game planning him
00:35based on the tendencies from a year ago,
00:37if he changes them, then they're still a step behind.
00:40This was him talking about getting better in year two.
00:43I just think as a competitor, you're always trying to find little ways to get better.
00:47For me, it's like last year was last year.
00:50That was great.
00:51But it's a whole new year now and I still got to go out there.
00:53I got to prove myself to my teammates, organization each and every day
00:57that I'm getting better.
00:58And when it's time to prepare and when those games come,
01:01I got to know that, hey, how can I eliminate some tendencies?
01:06Stuff like that.
01:07Because that's the big thing.
01:08Coach is already trying to find tendencies of what this player is going to do
01:12so they can anticipate it and hopefully get you in that situation.
01:15I love that phrase, eliminating tendencies.
01:19There are a couple of subtle little things that, frankly,
01:22don't matter if you know them all the time because he can still beat you.
01:25His good is better than your good.
01:27But as an example, last year when he would pull the ball down and scramble to his right,
01:31he was able to throw the football still.
01:33And he would reset occasionally out of the pocket off to his right
01:35and get a base and a platform and throw the football.
01:39If he left the pocket to his left, you'd be hard pressed.
01:43It might have happened once or twice.
01:44There was a touchdown.
01:45I remember he had to throw kind of across his body.
01:46But it was so abnormal.
01:48He went, oh, my God, that happened.
01:49It almost never happened.
01:51And as the year went on, it became a talking point.
01:53There were analysts that were studying him.
01:55It came from coaches that were opposing the team.
01:57That one of the coaching points was if he rolls out of the pocket to his left,
02:01he's running.
02:01If he goes to his right, he's going to look to continue to keep the play alive.
02:05Little things like that that become obvious with film study,
02:08if he can make changes, he becomes just that much more dangerous
02:12because now you're game planning against him with this thing that isn't even real.
02:15Yeah, you're flat-footed, basically, and that's the point is him moving
02:19and you flat-footed, and he wins.
02:21He's going to win more often than not as it is.
02:23But, yeah, I mean, not allowing defenses to anticipate.
02:25That, to me, is the key to offense.
02:27Honestly, you have an advantage.
02:28You know where you're going, and they don't.
02:30If you make them or allow them to dictate to you,
02:32offenses become very pedestrian very quickly.
02:35That was kind of, you know, I think the beauty most of the time of Kingsbury and Company,
02:39but that's what good offensive coordinators do,
02:41is they work those tendencies sometimes to your advantage, right?
02:44If you go against type where every time – I'm just making this up.
02:48It's more advanced than this.
02:49But every time out of a certain set, they've run whatever play, right?
02:54And then they've shown you something 20 times or 20 for 20.
02:57The 21st time they do something totally different off of that,
03:00planting breadcrumbs for people to follow and then going in a different direction.
03:03That can be both with play caller.
03:04It can also be with a quarterback, right,
03:06where you're that aware playing three-dimensional chess.
03:08This also is – this is not a Jaden Daniels point that I'm about to make.
03:11It could be about anybody, but I've mentioned how he says the right thing
03:16and says the exact thing that I would, like, write for him and hand to him and say,
03:19hey, can you answer this question this way?
03:21Say it thusly.
03:22If, in fact, he's practicing what he preaches and it's all gospel,
03:26and I believe it to be, there's no reason why we wouldn't assume that.
03:29Just look at how last year went and how good he was as a rookie.
03:32Then I'm able to now picture him pouring over his own tape and studying and analyzing himself
03:40and with the steno pad out and the pen jotting little subtle things down about his game.
03:46That's how you get better year over year.
03:48A lot of it is going to happen.
03:50Sure, you go to the gym, the physical attributes,
03:53you make sure that they sustain the foot speed, the mobility, and the agility.
03:57But, really, the leap from year one to year two is you just learned a lot.
04:02You were up on the whiteboard, proverbially, every single Sunday from one to four,
04:06and now I need you to take that info and I need you to use it to better yourself.
04:11And the best way to do that to me, self-scout.
04:13Let me find out what did I do well, what didn't I do well, what gave me problems.
04:17Because you know when you got lucky.
04:19You know when you got fooled and maybe nobody else does.
04:22Hey, I pulled the ball down.
04:23I still got to scramble for six.
04:24Listen, Grant and Danny clapped like seals, but man, I almost delivered that football into that bad window.
04:30Just the idea that he's sitting there studying that way, I'm not saying C.J. Stroud didn't
04:36or some of these guys year one to year two that didn't make the leap weren't able to,
04:39but it gives you the best possible chance to do something really, really difficult,
04:43which is after the incredible first season that nobody had,
04:46to not take a step back like Stroud and so many have.
04:49I think that's a really salient point.
04:51It reminds me, obviously not even close to the same, but just as a student forever ago,
04:56I remember going back, I didn't look at my notes all semester.
04:59Like I actually went to this class, took notes, and I remember like right before the final,
05:04I was like, what the hell does this mean?
05:05My chicken scratch, these little things that I wrote down for myself,
05:09that was like four or five months ago.
05:11I didn't remember what I was doing.
05:12I was probably hung over.
05:13What does this even mean?
05:14And I couldn't even study the material, right?
05:17I mean, I know I'm not exactly analogous,
05:18but it's basically, it's one thing to say I went through it.
05:20Okay, so what?
05:21What did you learn from it?
05:22What's the 2.0?
05:23What's the adjustment?
05:24What's the improvement?
05:25What's the, and sometimes you go, actually, that was really good.
05:27I can keep that or whatever, right?
05:29But being able to grow from setbacks, being able to grow from adversity or problems,
05:35it's not only good quarterbacking, it's good life stuff, right?
05:38And I think that's, it kind of speaks to his character that he understands that.
05:41This is from Jaden Daniels' interview going along with John Gruden.
05:44How about him on not turning the ball over?
05:47I found this to be instructive.
05:49He cited one of his former college coaches and one of their axioms that's in his head
05:53all the time.
05:54And you can just see the way he plays, that he really takes this to heart.
05:58This is preparation and timing.
06:01I remember for me, I remember my freshman year at Arizona State,
06:06I had a coach named Herm Edwards that told me, man, no matter what you do,
06:10make sure the possession ends in the kick.
06:14Where it's an extra point, field goal, punt, just make sure it ends in the kick.
06:18That means taking care of the football.
06:20Being smart with it still, you got to take some risk in this game.
06:23But just being smart with the football, and I mean, I work hard to be able to want to
06:27place the ball where I want to, give my guys a chance, and keep it out of harm's way.
06:32First of all, I love that he acted like there's this obscure guy.
06:35There's this guy.
06:36There's a gentleman.
06:36You may have heard of him.
06:37You guys don't know him, but he was a coach in Arizona State, this small school.
06:41You haven't heard of him.
06:41His name's Herm Edwards.
06:42Herm Edwards.
06:43Oh, you mean they play to win the game guy from the Jets.
06:46Hello.
06:47That guy.
06:47But Jaden Daniels, 331 completions and almost 500 attempts this past year.
06:53He only threw nine interceptions, and it really could have been lower than that.
06:56A couple weren't even really his fault.
06:58But the nine interceptions is even a little bit misleading because the first half of the season,
07:02you know, the early part where you're doing all the learning and making all the mistakes,
07:05he almost never, ever, ever put the ball in harm's way.
07:09There are a few even risky moments where you go, man, that could have been picked.
07:11I think that was probably the most stunning thing about his season, and certainly the
07:14most mind-blowing, amazing thing about Jaden's rookie year.
07:17He didn't make the rookie mistakes very often, but that paradigm I love, this idea of, hey,
07:23punts are good.
07:24Maybe they're not better than touchdowns, but they're a hell of a lot better than interceptions.
07:28Totally.
07:28And with a kick.
07:29I love that.
07:30I'm going to use that.
07:30Especially when they, you know, a third and 29 arm punt isn't the end of the world.
07:36But yeah, for the most part, they can be devastating plays talking about their turnovers.
07:39And usually, with most mortal quarterbacks, you've seen some of those Aaron Rodgers or
07:43Peyton Manning or even Brady prolific seasons, where they're immune to this, there's usually
07:47three legs of the stool, so to speak, where leg one is prolific passer performances.
07:52That's huge, gaudy, touchdown numbers, yardage numbers, et cetera.
07:56Leg number two is turnovers.
07:58Leg number three is sacks.
07:59You usually have to give on one to get the other, right?
08:03In other words, you're going to be a YOLO guy.
08:05You might throw it up for grabs a couple more times, gives your receiver a chance.
08:07See Grossman come and wrecks.
08:08What does that lead to?
08:10Interceptions, right?
08:11You're throwing early.
08:11You're anticipating.
08:12Or you're going to hold it for a long time.
08:14Might lead to more guys breaking open, maybe more prolific passing numbers.
08:17But again, you get sacked a bunch.
08:19Every once in a while, you get someone that's just playing it perfect that year and everything's
08:22humming.
08:22You get great numbers in all of them.
08:24But what we saw early on, honestly, was Griffin-esque.
08:27If you remember in 2012, not as many ball at risk kind of things.
08:31Like, let's be safe and let's be cautious and your talent's going to shine through.
08:34But now as you kind of grow with this thing and get used to it, kind of the previous
08:38point we were just making, he gets more and more comfortable.
08:41You can throw with anticipation.
08:42You can let that go a hair early, knowing that your guy's going to be there.
08:45That trust and identifying the various trends and things the defense is trying to do.
08:49Here's another answer that is straight out of written for him.
08:53Basically, it's just like he gets it, man.
08:56And I don't get the sense that this is just a guy saying what people want to hear.
08:59I think he's just that likable and decent and awesome as a young kid.
09:04But the question was about year over year, essentially, like now that you have more weapons,
09:12now that Debo Samuel's here, what are you going to do if they keep loading you up with
09:16pieces, if they get another two weapons in the draft, when everybody wants the football,
09:20you've got McLaurin, you've got Debo, you're trying to develop Luke McCaffrey, you know,
09:25Austin Eckler out of the backfield, and Ertz, and Ben Sinnott's got to come on.
09:30They're all going to come to you and say they want their touches.
09:32I just thought this was a veteran answer from a young quarterback.
09:35This was a Kirk Cousins-esque answer.
09:37He used to say this on our show all the time.
09:39Hey, I don't dictate where the ball is going.
09:42So that's what I tell him every time.
09:43Like, you're going to get the ball.
09:45I'm going to make sure you get the football.
09:46But, you know, I don't dictate.
09:48The defense want to take away you, and that means somebody else is open.
09:51So at the end of the day, I know everybody wants to make an impact on the game,
09:55but, you know, at the end of the day, it's kind of going to go.
09:57We want to win.
09:58I want to do whatever it takes to win.
10:00Terry coming to the quarterback, like, I need the ball.
10:03And he's like, I don't determine where the ball goes.
10:05The guy that throws it, right?
10:06Yeah, there's a guy with a headset just over there.
10:08Handsome.
10:08Good head of hair, DePoist.
10:09He's like, I'm reading it out.
10:11If coverage dictates you get the ball, you will get the ball.